Thursday’s stock jump doesn’t even begin to close the gap, Ian Hunter, an analyst with Cantor Fitzgerald Ireland, said in a note to clients on Friday, noting that with the company trading at an enterprise value of 7.9 times ebitda, it is still changing hands at a 26 per cent discount to peers, who are predominantly based in the US.
CRH isn’t alone. Flutter Entertainment, the owner of Paddy Power and Betfair, said in the middle of last month that it was looking at taking on a US stock market quotation. The expectation is that it will eventually move its main listing there – enabling it, like CRH, to chase the prize of being included in influential US stock indices.
Both CRH and Flutter, led by chief executive Peter Jackson, seem happy to shrug off the cautionary tale offered by Fyffes spin-off Total Produce. It ditched its Irish listing in mid-2021 in favour of the Big Apple as it merged with Dole Foods to create Dole plc, only to see its stock slump 40 per cent by the end of last year.
But the developments raise further questions about the future of the Euronext Dublin cash equities market. Keeping companies on the market has been even more difficult. Green Reit, Hibernia Reit, CPL Resources, Applegreen and Yew Grove have been acquired off the market in the past four years. Aryzta and Tullow Oil have scrapped their local listings.